There is a need to distribute functional blocks such as integrated circuit chips across large area substrates, such as a roll-to-roll substrate or a plurality of panel substrates where the active circuitry such as the functional blocks only occupies a small fraction of the substrate. Thus it may be advantageous to process the functional blocks in a different substrate and then transfer the completed functional blocks to the final substrates. Prior arts include processes in which the functional blocks are deposited into a substrate using a pick-and-place or a fluidic-self assembly process.
An exemplary pick and place process uses a human or robot arm to pick each functional block and place it into its corresponding location in the assembly substrate. The pick and place process is usually serial, placing one functional block at a time, and is thus slow for numerous devices such as RFID devices or pixels of large arrays, and difficult for very small devices because the pick and place unit is hard to make in a small size.
The fluidic self assembly process employs fluid transport to assemble functional blocks on a substrate. The fluidic self assembly process mixes the functional blocks in a fluid and then dispenses the mixture over the surface of the receiving substrate where the functional blocks randomly align onto receptor regions.